PPHS now just PPH

ESCONDIDO -- Hoping to draw more North County residents to their
two hospitals, Palomar Pomerado Health System board members voted
Monday to spend up to $75,000 on a new district logo and to shorten
the district's name to "Palomar Pomerado Health."

Marcia Jackson, the vice president of planning and marketing for
Palomar Pomerado, said a survey commissioned by the district in
September showed people were confused by the word "system" in the
old name.

"The word 'system' didn't really mean anything to the public,"
Jackson said. "(So) we're simplifying the name. We're not doing a
major name change."

The survey found that people living nearly in the shadow of the
district's hospitals -- the 328-bed Palomar Medical Center in
Escondido and the 107-bed Pomerado Hospital in Poway -- knew
practically nothing about the hospitals or their services.

Jackson and board members said changing the district's name and
spending the $75,000 on a new logo could change that, leading to
greater name recognition and increased business.

The financially struggling district posted $27 million in losses
last year.

Board President George Gigliotti said the district needed a
catchier name to stick in the minds of prospective patients.

"We want to get the word out in our area in North County about
our two hospitals and skilled nursing facility … and get a lot of
the people who are getting their health-care service from outside
the area to consider getting it from us," Gigliotti said.

Board member Ted Kleiter agreed.

"What we want to do is let the people in our service area -- in
our district -- realize that their hospitals are Palomar Medical
Center and Pomerado Hospital," Kleiter said Tuesday. "We've got
people from Escondido going to Scripps (hospitals) and people from
San Marcos going to Tri-City."

Jean Wintz, an analyst who reviewed the survey results for
Endresen Research in Seattle late last year, said it's normal for
as many as 50 percent of people living in a community not to know
about the hospitals in their area.

But when the 666 North County residents polled in the September
survey were asked to name the first hospital that came to their
minds, nearly 70 percent did not, or could not, name Palomar
Medical Center. More than 85 percent failed to name Pomerado
Hospital.

Wintz said part of the reason for the "unusually low" awareness
levels for Palomar Pomerado could have been because of the large
number of hospitals in San Diego County.

In addition to Palomar Pomerado and Tri-City Medical Center in
Oceanside, ScrippsHealth has five area hospitals and Sharp
Healthcare has seven.

Jackson said the district planned to "ease into" the name change
by ordering new letterheads and stationery as needed, rather than
immediately buying all new materials.

The $75,000 limit approved by board members Monday night,
Jackson said, would be used to create the district's new logo.

Jackson said the district hoped to have the logo completed and
ready for promotional use by mid-May, in time for the Escondido
Street Fair.

Kleiter said the change would mark the fourth time the district
has changed its name since it was created in 1949.

He said that when the district, and Palomar Memorial Hospital,
was created, it was known as the San Diego North County Hospital
District.

Around 1980, Kleiter said, the district renamed itself the
"Palomar Pomerado Hospital District." That gave way to Palomar
Pomerado Health System in the 1990s, Kleiter said.